Standard Member

I've been using Windows Media Center as my home entertainment system for some time now. I built it myself, and like to think I know my way around the hardware and software.

I had been using PowerDVD to playback Blu-ray disks, for the simple reason that it was the software that came with the Blu-ray drive. I never liked it much, it didn't integrate with Media Center, and last week it just plain stopped working. I found plenty of recommendations for TotalMedia Theatre so downloaded the trial of version 6 and immediately liked what I saw.

However, I've got one small problem that I'd like to resolve before I buy a licence. When I play Blu-rays from the the stand-alone player, the software correctly goes full screen and plays back perfectly. However, when I select TotalMedia Theatre from with Media Center, it does'nt play full screen - instead, it plays in a window on top of the Media Center background, such that there is a 2" blue border all around the movie being played.

I've found other people having this problem on various forums, but no posted solution.

Standard Member

Mine works fine. What is the resolution of your TV and what resolution is Windows using? How did you adjust for overscan/underscan when you setup your system?

Click to expand...

The TV is 1080p. I have WMC set to use it at 1080p, and Windows itself runs at 1920 x 1080.

By default windows (and WMC) did not utilise 100% of the screen available. I adjusted this with the NVidia software that installs with the graphics chip. Could this be the cause? I'm struggling to rationalise how it could affect the integrated WMC version but not the native Windows app.

Active Member

The TV is 1080p. I have WMC set to use it at 1080p, and Windows itself runs at 1920 x 1080.

By default windows (and WMC) did not utilise 100% of the screen available. I adjusted this with the NVidia software that installs with the graphics chip. Could this be the cause? I'm struggling to rationalise how it could affect the integrated WMC version but not the native Windows app.

Click to expand...

I found setting WMC to 'Monitor' and not 'TV' for the display device in the setup wizard eradicated the black border around the screen, rather than using the Nvidia driver settings.

I think it reduces the screen size when set to TV to allow for overscan.

Standard Member

OK, setting the display as 'monitor' instead of 'TV' has fixed the display problem - many thanks.

And now, as is the nature of such things, we move on to the next problem

When playing a Blu-ray back using TMC within WMC, the playback stutters (pauses, then speeds up to catch up, then pauses again, repeatedly, every couple of seconds). However, it doesn't do this if I close WMC and start TMC from Windows.

Well-known Member

OK, setting the display as 'monitor' instead of 'TV' has fixed the display problem - many thanks.

And now, as is the nature of such things, we move on to the next problem

When playing a Blu-ray back using TMC within WMC, the playback stutters (pauses, then speeds up to catch up, then pauses again, repeatedly, every couple of seconds). However, it doesn't do this if I close WMC and start TMC from Windows.

All suggestions gratefully received...

Click to expand...

What refresh rate are you using in your Windows display settings?
What version of TotalMedia Theater are you using?
TMT5 should auto-switch to 24Hz for Blu-ray if your display supports it.

Go into the Windows display properties, and see if you can setup these refresh rates.

Click to expand...

OK, sorry for the delay in follow up - been away for a few days.

I've now set:
- The Windows screen resolution to 1920 x 1080 @50Hz, TrueColor
- WMC to use the TV as a 'monitor', at 1080p @ 50Hz

Still get the same symptoms - the desktop version of TMT plays blu-rays fine (I've tried 2 different disks), while WMC stutters and the audio is out of sync with the video

While there is an option to set the windows screen resolution to 1920x1080 @50Hz, High Colour, that sets Windows to 'basic' resolution. There doesn't seem to be anywhere in WMC to set 24Hz. And even if you could, how would it distinguish between broadcast TV and Bluray?